Belmar, NJ -- An off-campus property, housing students for a private Hebrew school, has been ruled in court as a dorm and will be required to have fire sprinklers.

The case has been ongoing for the past eight years as the student housing property insisted they were not an official student house and, as a result, should not be required to have fire sprinklers. The case started when, in 2006, the Belmar Fire Department was called to the property three times. They had an inspection that year and it was determined that they were dormitories and needed automatic fire sprinklers.

In January 2008, the dorms were inspected again and found that they still hadn't installed fire sprinklers. They were charged a $500 per building fee. The property owner continued to argue that the buildings were not dorms and were not on campus. However, the inspectors were allowed entrance into one of the buildings and a sign that stated, "Smoking Illegal in Dormitories" proved that they were connected to the school.

The property is now being forced through a court ruling to install fire sprinklers.